Separately, Nokia reported that for its third quarter it sold 8.8 million Lumia handsets running Windows Phone, up 19 per cent compared to the same time last year.

Nokia is being pushed out of the top table by the trio of Asian handset makers who are stuck at around 12 million handsets. Less than a million units separate Huawei from Lenovo and LG.

Apple, meanwhile, remains the number-two to Samsung, with 33.8 million iPhones sold and 13.1 per cent of the market, an increase of a quarter.

IDC noted it’s still too soon say whether the iPhones 5S and 5C are a success, although Cupertino did record nine million of these phones sold.

Overall, IDC reported a second record-breaking quarter for smart-phone sales: between them, handset makers unloaded 258.4 million phones, breaking the previous, second-quarter record of 237 million – an increase of nine per cent.

The analyst credited growth to lower prices, particularly thanks to low-cost Android units. “This helped China to become one of the fastest growing smartphone markets in the world, accounting for more than one third of shipments this quarter,” IDC mobile phone tracker program tracker Ryan Reith said in a statement.